Dungeon Siege

List Price: $19.99 Discount Price: $6.28

Accessories:
PC Gamer (1-year)	Games for Windows: The Official Magazine

Customer Reviews:

Sorry, But It Just Doesn't Cut It [Posted on 2007-06-28]
I bought this in a moment of weakness when there were no new first person D&D type games out there. I had been burned by other 3rd person games, but decided to see what someone else besides the Baldur's Gate people could do with things.



The game was very linear and to me, very annoying to play. I had problems with the party AI and did not like that I could not veer off the path to any extent. I got maybe halfway through it and quit. Not my cup of tea.

Tedious [Posted on 2007-10-01]
I can't remember playing a game as tedious as this. This game along with Diabolo are often compared to the mid 80s arcade game Gauntlet. I do have recollections of playing Gauntlet in arcades in the 80s. Was Gauntlet as boring as this? I honestly can't remember.

Anyway to sum up the gameplay of Dungeon Siege-

a) Jog along path
b) Enemies appear in front of you and from your side
c) Enemies will attack you if in range
d) You click on enemy to attack them. Your character(s) will automatically fight back if attacked, so there's not much to worry about here.
e) Enemies sometimes drop potions, gold and equipment if killed. Your character can pick these up if he/ she wants to.
f) Repeat process.

It's all very shallow. You can use melee, ranged weapons or spells but the end result tends to be pretty much the same,

Although I can understand that long convoluted plots a la Baldur's Gate *can* get dull, it's the difference in combat that made me play Baldur's gate (and it's spin offs) to the end, rather than just give up in boredom. In Baldur's gate you're often facing much tougher opponents than you, and the fun of the combat is coming up with various combinations of melee. ranged attacks and magic spells to overcome your opponents. There were many different strategies to try. With Dungeon Siege in contrast you're mostly just being swarmed with numerous, weaker opponents. The chances of actually dying are really quite slim considering the abundance of healing potions and other power ups. Combat in Dungeon Siege reminded me more of swatting swarms of pesky mosquitoes than anything.

People often say it looks gorgeous. Well, it's fairly nice, but even some games from 1999 looked somewhat better. There are some nicely done textures and lighting underground especially, but I didn't find it to be amazing graphically.

Unfortunately not evern a soundtrack by the excellent Jeremy Soule makes me want to play Dungeon Siege any further.

A game that provides you a different experience. [Posted on 2007-10-02]
I didn't realize Dungeon Siege was a good game until a few years after I played it. It begin to dawn upon me that I did have a few unique and different experience with Dungeon Siege than I have with other average RPG games. I ignored those experience and concluded that the game wasn't good enough, but then I now know that it does have the some unique characteristics and differences. As for how entertaining the game was, I'd say that at first the game is BORING. If you're playing a single playing mode of kingdom of Ehb you start out as a farmer with very little equipment. You'll start fighting these annoying Krugs who don't seem like the worthy opponents as well as the mosquito bugs that annoyingly flies around you. But as you progress through the game you might find yourself addicted to it. The various types of armors, weapons, and magic will become your major incentive in the game. You'll travel around the world hacking and slashing your opponents to gather gold, and sometimes you go beneath the dungeons to find a few treasures so you would have enough money to buy items. The traveling is another part of the addiction. As you travel around, you'll be curious enough to ask yourself what kind of items do merchants sell in the next town. Since you already have what you need from the current town you would want to go to the next to get more. Another incentive in this game is the exploration. The Peninsula map in Dungeon siege for example is HUGE. I played at least 24 hours total (If I can correctly recall), and I'm still around lvl 33, and I haven't even explored the world completely. I probably only traveled probably around 1/3 of the world. Again you'll probably be curious enough to ask yourself if there are other parts of the world that'll catch your interest. The only uniqueness and differences I found within the game are obviously these: 1) There's absolutely no loading when you travel around the world 2) Your character naturally chooses his own class and increases his attributes/skills based on what weapons (or magic) he uses. 3) The party adds up the fun of the game, traveling alone makes it much more difficult for your character 4)The Siege tools are unique part of Dungeon Siege, I never used them but you can learn them yourself or from Siege University.5) You can download MODS or worlds such as a DS version of Ultima V, you can have fun with those. 6) Traveling can be fun out of curiosity, the journey seems endless. 7) You can use pack mules to carry your equipments 8) you're character's status changes as he develops such as a Page, Squire, and Knight, and then Legionary. I personally found that creative.

The graphic of this game is outdated but it is still adjustable like other games. Nevertheless you'll still find yourself amazed by some of the scenes of the environment you interact with. The sound quality wasn't great in my opinion. I thought the hack/slash sound didn't sound realistic, and the enemies crying out after they die sounded retarded. The music however is well done, it fits very well in certain scenes of the game. Sometimes you'll get a feeling from the music.

The Multiplayer Mode is interesting. I haven't played it as much as I wanted to but all I can say is that I encountered a few interesting things. You can load up a mod you downloaded for both you and your friends to play in. It doesn't have to be one mod, which is a single-playing map, it can also be other mods as well. After you are finished playing the game the result status will show how many enemies you killed, how much you leveled up, how many dungeons you discovered, and ect. The statistics are interesting, which is one thing I like about the multiplayer mode. Playing with your friends is something I didn't do, but I can imagine that it would be fun traveling in a vast world with yoru friends.

The only flaws I found in this game is that the game can get repetitive. No matter who you slew down you feel like it's the same enemy. The hack and slash can get annoying, there's really no reason in doing this except getting some money. The game can get old pretty quickly, but for me sometimes I just want to go back to the game. Another flaw is the lack of side-quest. There aren't enough quest to keep you interested, thus the game does get boring because of that. Sometimes you can get lost in the world if you don't know how to properly use your map. There are even times that no matter how much you properly used the map you still can't find an exit. This makes the game challenging but it also makes it annoying at times, it shows that the map can be confusing.

I'm pretty sure there are more to say, but I want to go straight to the point. This game did give me a different experience, If you give this game a chance for a while you'll find yourself addicted to it. Depending on who you are this game either gets old quickly or you'll still find yourself enjoying this game. So do I recommend this game? Yes I do, this game is different from other games, it's not the best game out there but it definitely provides you something different that other games do not have. I already listed the things that this game has, but there are probably more. If you wish to know what I'm trying to say, play the game.

Great Adventure Game [Posted on 2007-12-31]
I thought that Dungeon Siege was an excellent game. I am by no means a first person shooter player & prefer games that have a little strategy & thought required. Although this game is linear, meaning you follow a certain path to conclusion & can't deviate away from it (very much any ways) you do have to do a little creative thinking when it comes to launching your attacks on various enemies. (some can be quite tricky) The story was entertaining, the graphics were great, and it held my attention beautifully. No ADD issues with this game!! Would recommend this game to anyone that wants to play a fantasy/adventure without all the running around with just a gun on the screen shooting anything you see.

AN EXCELLENT ACTION-cRPG! [Posted on 2008-01-11]
This is an action cRPG that came out after DIABLO II and just before NEVERWINTER NIGHTS. And it blew both of them out of the water!

Not as deep as NWN, yet the story engaged you enough to make it more than a hack'n'slash. Not as dark as DIABLO II, yet blood fever will take hold of you once in battle. A number of innovative ideas made DUNGEON SIEGE a unique experience: the cinematic perspective, the original characters (machine-gun shooting medieval robots!), the fighting-back pack-mule...
At the same time, both the enemies' and your company members' AI is well above par.

Graphically, this is a 4 year game yet it plays much smoother and it has further horizons than most cRPGs today. Even if, to any true cRPG fun, graphics is not everything (otherwise DAWN OF MAGIC would have been considered a great game), DUNGEON SIEGE is found lacking in nothing when it comes to graphics. Not until TITAN QUEST got released could any cRPG hold a candle to DUNGEON SIEGE! Tress and grass move as you pass by, water ripples as you step into it and wakes as you walk through it. Everything worn or wielded appears on the character; whereas, magic spells are not shabby at all.

The game also sports a GREAT CAMERA PLACEMENT (zoom capable and totally customizable) and has one of the BEST SOUNDTRACKS - the theme music will stay with you as the appropriate theme for any epic battles in the future.

Those of you who were (rightfully) disappointed with the truly bad and much shorter DUNGEON SIEGE 2(I still cannot fathom how they managed to botch that one!), keep in mind that it has only skin-deep similarities to its predecessor. This is the one to buy!

You will enjoy it more than most latest games!

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!

Click here for more details and discount information...